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Inter Alia

Part of the Olympic Park Commissions and the Cultural Olympiad accompanying the 2012 London Olympic Games, Turner Prize winner Grenville Davey carried out workshops with local residents and community groups exploring the theme of 'leaving your mark' as a form of producing a cultural legacy in sculpture. Collectively, Davey and the participants from Newham created 61 aluminium/ bronze castings varying in diameter from 20-400mm that formed a series abstract ‘finger prints’ of different sizes that marked and disrupted the surface of the 91 retaining walls of the Central Park Bridge in the Olympic Park (illustrated in olympicwork file). The research involved the interpretation and rendering of ideas about community and local legacy generated during the public consultation workshops into a coherent, original and integrated civic sculptural design. Davey oversaw the work’s completion through the production stage of the castings and the retaining wall involving close collaboration between the artist with landscape designers, engineers, planners and foundries, to its final on-site installation in the Olympic Park.

The workshop and installation was part of an overall design-led strategy for the wider Art in the Olympic Park project - an aggregate collection of works by high-profile artists and residents aimed at adding a creative lustre to the Park commission. At the height of the 2012 Games, some 2 million spectators had passed through the Park; many of whom had walked over the Bridge and encountered the artwork.

These commissions were supported by funders including the Greater London Authority, Arts Council England, the London Development Agency and Forward Arts Foundation.

The work was covered in both local and national news: http://www.newhamrecorder.co.uk/what-s-on/arts/london_2012_uel_artist_leaves_mark_on_olympic_park_1_1409412

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17875300

The installation is featured along with the rest of the art in the park commissions on the London 2012 website and in a publication which can be downloaded from the site: (http://www.london2012.com/mm/Document/spectators/Venue/01/24/89/74/art-in-the-park_Neutral.pdf)